Yearly Archives: 2006

Management Consulting – Web Site Evidence

Posted on October 18, 2006 by John Hunter

In, How Wipro Adapted the Toyota Production System to IT Work [the broken link was removed], Jon Miller highlights several keys to adopting lean thinking: involve everyone, learn and then do, and learn together. In Wipro’s case they should also … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Lean thinking, Management, Management Articles | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Management Consulting – Web Site Evidence

Deming Institute Conference: Tom Nolan

Posted on October 16, 2006 by John Hunter

I attended the annual W. Edwards Deming Institute conference this weekend: it was quite good. Tom Nolan [the broken link was removed] lead off the conference with: Developing and Applying Theory to Get Results. He discussed the theory of knowledge: … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Lean Canadian Company

Posted on October 15, 2006 by John Hunter

Lean and mean might not be enough [the broken link was removed] “I wanted all the machines working all the time,” Afeyan said as he watched a worker moving a stack of veneers into position for “cooking” in one of … Continue reading →

Posted in Lean thinking, Management Articles, Manufacturing | Comments Off on Lean Canadian Company

Designing In Errors

Posted on October 12, 2006 by John Hunter

TiVo’s “self-destruct button” destructs [the broken link was removed] In so doing, they’ve created a bunch of potential failures in which the user is locked out of her own equipment. It’s like those movies where an accident or a bad … Continue reading →

Posted in IT, Management, Quality tools | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Righter Performance Appraisal

Posted on October 9, 2006 by John Hunter

Speaking of “doing the wrong things righter” Microsoft has eliminated forced rankings in performance appraisal: to do performance appraisals righter. Microsoft exec puts her stamp on human resources: The forced curve was company policy. And it climbed up a list … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Management, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Doing the Wrong Things Righter

Posted on October 8, 2006 by John Hunter

The more we manage, the worse we make things by Simon Caulkin The distinguished systems theorist Russ Ackoff describes the trap as ‘doing the wrong thing righter’. ‘The righter we do the wrong thing,’ he explains, ‘the wronger we become. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Systems thinking | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Hiring the Right People

Posted on October 7, 2006 by John Hunter

The job market is an inefficient market. There are many reasons for this including relying on specification (this job requires a BS in Computer Science – no Bill Gates you don’t meet the spec) instead of understanding the system. Insisting … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Customer focus, IT, Management, Performance Appraisal, Popular | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Google Shifts Focus

Posted on October 7, 2006 by John Hunter

It appears Google has decided it is time to put more resources into improving their many existing products (Gmail, News, Video, Maps, Picassa, Spreadsheets, Checkout, GoogleTalk, AdSense for Radio, GoogleReader, BlogSearch, GoogleGroups,…). That makes sense to me. When Google had … Continue reading →

Posted in Google, IT, Management, Software Development, Systems thinking | Comments Off on Google Shifts Focus

Not Innovation but Still Interesting

Posted on October 5, 2006 by John Hunter

10 years of the most innovative ideas in business in not packed with ideas on innovation: it was obviously titled by someone hoping to catch the interest of those following the innovation fad. Still it has interesting stories originally published … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Innovation, Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

More on Overpaid CEO’s

Posted on October 4, 2006 by John Hunter

CEO pay up big – but not performance: The Corporate Library analyzed the compensation of nearly 1,400 chiefs for its annual report on CEO pay. The group’s median total compensation rose 16 percent between 2004 and 2005. A year earlier, … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments